NASA astronaut headed to International Space Station confident Russia will figure out source of hole

NASA astronaut Anne McClain takes a photo with a NASA intern following a news conference discussing her crew's upcoming mission to the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The crew is scheduled to launch Dec. 20 aboard the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. less

NASA astronaut Anne McClain takes a photo with a NASA intern following a news conference discussing her crew's upcoming mission to the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Thursday, ... more

Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Photographer

Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Photographer

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NASA astronaut Anne McClain takes a photo with a NASA intern following a news conference discussing her crew's upcoming mission to the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018. The crew is scheduled to launch Dec. 20 aboard the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. less

NASA astronaut Anne McClain takes a photo with a NASA intern following a news conference discussing her crew's upcoming mission to the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Thursday, ... more

Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Photographer

NASA astronaut headed to International Space Station confident Russia will figure out source of hole

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NASA astronaut Anne McClain said Thursday she is confident Russia will get to the bottom of the air leak-causing hole recently found on the International Space Station.

Russia has "a very long history of safe space flight," McClain said at a news conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "I know the people there, I work with the people there and I trust them just as I trust the people at NASA."

McClain is scheduled to launch to the space station Dec. 20 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft -- her very first spaceflight since being selected as an astronaut in 2013. She will be joined by two crewmates, Canada's David Saint-Jacques and Russia's Oleg Kononenko who were also at the Thursday news conference.

The safety of the Russian Soyuz -- the only spacecraft that ferries astronauts to and from the station -- was called into question last week after an air leak was traced back to a hole in the Soyuz currently attached to the station.

It's not yet clear how the hole discovery will impact the October flight, which will be carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague. Hague is not a member of McClain's crew and was not at the news conference Thursday.

But Kononenko said he believes the hole was an "exception" and not a problem in other Soyuz models.

"Just in case, they're checking other Soyuzes, including ours," he said. "I'm sure they'll figure out what went on."

Design engineers in Russia initially thought the hole was caused by space debris, but now believe it was the result of sloppy drill work, either on Earth or in space.

If left unchecked, the leak could have resulted in total air loss for the station in 18 days.

The Soyuz has been the only way to get to the orbiting laboratory since 2011, when NASA's space shuttle program was shuttered.

"I know [the hole] is a big issue and a lot of people are worried about it and thinking about it," McClain said. "I can say that no one probably thought about it more than those of us inside the space program right now."

But Russia "will not let an unsafe vehicle fly," she continued.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.